At the change of ends, Federer applauded after watching the big screen replay. Federer held for , forcing Nadal to close out the minute set — which he did courtesy of a Federer backhand into the net.

Things are about to go into overdrive as Rafa takes the 4th Federer returned after an off-court medical time out to serve first in the decider. The time lapse provided respite, but not for the Swiss who lost the first two points.

Nadal then saved three break points for a big hold that got his coach, Uncle Toni, out of his seat. Federer kept applying the pressure, playing as close to the baseline as he could, and in the next game forced Nadal to rip a backhand crosscourt winner at break point.

Although Nadal maintained his break advantage for a lead, the match could turn on its head with a moment of brilliance. It did in the sixth game, with Federer levelling the score at on his second break point chance when Nadal struck an in-out forehand wide.

At the fifth time of asking, the Swiss broke when Nadal was drawn out wide to hit a forehand into the net.

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Roger Federer claims his fifth Australian Open title and first since More stories like this in: Tennis Hall of Fame. Nadal started his North American summer hard-court season by defeating Agassi in the final of the Canada Masters , but lost in the first round of the Cincinnati Masters.

Nadal was seeded second at the US Open , but was upset in the third round by No. He then suffered a foot injury that prevented his competing in the year-ending Tennis Masters Cup.

Nadal won the Golden Bagel Award for , with eleven 6—0 sets during the year. Nadal missed the Australian Open because of a foot injury. To complete the spring hard-court season, Nadal was upset in the semifinals of the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California , by James Blake, and was upset in the second round of the Miami Masters.

On European clay , Nadal won all four tournaments he entered and 24 consecutive matches. Nadal went on to play Federer in the final of the French Open.

The first two sets of the match were hardly competitive, as the rivals traded 6—1 sets. Nadal won the third set easily and served for the match in the fourth set before Federer broke him and forced a tiebreaker.

Nadal won the tiebreaker and became the first to defeat Federer in a Grand Slam tournament final. Nadal was seeded second at Wimbledon, and was two points from defeat against American qualifier Robert Kendrick in the second round before coming back to win in five sets.

In the third round, Nadal defeated No. Nadal also won his next three matches in straight sets, which set up his first Wimbledon final, which was against Federer, who had won this tournament the three previous years.

Nadal was the first Spanish man since Manuel Santana in , to reach the Wimbledon final, but Federer won the match in four sets to win his fourth consecutive Wimbledon title.

Nadal was seeded second at the US Open, but lost in the quarterfinals to No. Nadal played only three tournaments the remainder of the year.

Joachim Johansson , ranked No. Because of those two victories, Nadal qualified for the semifinals, where he lost to Federer.

Nadal went on to become the first player since Andre Agassi in —95 to finish the year ranked No. Nadal started the year by playing in six hard-court tournaments.

He had comparatively more success after returning to Europe to play five clay-court tournaments. This defeat ended his match winning streak on clay, which is the male Open Era record for consecutive wins on a single surface.

He then rebounded to win the French Open for the third straight year, defeating Federer once again in the final.

Between the tournaments in Barcelona and Rome, Nadal defeated Federer in the " Battle of Surfaces " exhibition match in Mallorca, Spain, with the tennis court being half grass and half clay.

As in , Nadal was upset in the quarterfinals. Nadal then won consecutive five-set matches during the third and fourth rounds of Wimbledon before being beaten by Federer in the five-set final.

In July, Nadal won the clay court Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart , which proved to be his last title of the year.

He played three important tournaments during the North American summer hard court season. He was the second-seeded player at the US Open , but was defeated in the fourth round by David Ferrer.

David Nalbandian upset him in the quarterfinals and final of those tournaments. To end the year, Nadal won two of his three-round robin matches to advance to the semifinals of the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai, where Federer defeated him in straight sets.

During the second half of the year, Nadal battled a knee injury suffered during the Wimbledon final. Nadal and his spokesman strongly denied this, however, with Nadal himself calling the story "totally false".

Nadal began the year in India, where he was comprehensively beaten by Mikhail Youzhny in the final of the Chennai Open.

Nadal then reached the semifinals of the Australian Open for the first time. Nadal also reached the final of the Miami Masters for the second time.

During the spring clay-court season, Nadal won four singles titles and defeated Roger Federer in three finals. He beat Federer at the Masters Series Monte Carlo for the third straight year, capturing his Open Era record fourth consecutive title there.

A few weeks later, Nadal won his first title at the Masters Series Hamburg , defeating Federer in a three-set final. He then won the French Open , becoming the fifth man in the Open Era to win a Grand Slam singles title without losing a set.

Nadal became the fourth male player during Open era to win the same Grand Slam singles tournament four consecutive years the others being Borg, Pete Sampras , and Federer.

Nadal then played Federer in the final of Wimbledon for the third consecutive year, in the most anticipated match of their rivalry. Federer had won his record fifth grass-court title at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle , and then reached the Wimbledon final without losing a set.

Unlike their previous two Wimbledon finals, though, Federer was not the prohibitive favorite, and many analysts picked Nadal to win.

The match was widely lauded as the greatest Wimbledon final ever, with some tennis critics even calling it the greatest match in tennis history.

By winning his first Wimbledon title, Nadal became the third man in the open era to win both the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year, after Rod Laver in , and Borg in —, Federer later accomplished this the following year as well as the second Spaniard to win Wimbledon.

This was also the first time that Nadal won two Grand Slam tournaments back-to-back. After Wimbledon, Nadal extended his winning streak to a career-best 32 matches.

He did not lose a set during his first three matches, defeating qualifiers in the first and second rounds and Viktor Troicki in the third round.

In the semifinals, he lost to Andy Murray. However, his performance at the event guaranteed that he would become the first Spaniard during the open era to finish the year ranked No.

At the Australian Open , Nadal won his first five matches without dropping a set, before defeating compatriot Fernando Verdasco in the semifinals in the second longest match in Australian Open history at 5 hours and 14 minutes.

Nadal defeated Federer in five sets to earn his first hard-court Grand Slam singles title, [59] making him the first Spaniard to win the Australian Open.

At the Indian Wells Masters , Nadal won his thirteenth Masters series tournament, defeating Murray in the final. Nadal advanced to the quarterfinals, where he again faced Argentinian del Potro, this time losing the match.

Nadal began his European clay court season at the Monte Carlo Masters , where he defeated Novak Djokovic to win a record fifth consecutive singles title there.

This was the first time that Nadal had lost to Federer since the semifinals of the Tennis Masters Cup. It was confirmed that he was suffering from tendinitis in both of his knees.

In December, Nadal participated in the second Davis Cup final of his career. Nadal finished the year as No. Nadal won the Golden Bagel Award for the third time in , with nine 6—0 sets during the year.

With this win, Nadal became the first player in the open era to win a tournament title for six straight years. He defeated David Ferrer in the final for his fifth title at Rome.

The win gave him his 18th Masters title, breaking the all-time record. Nadal moved back to No. Entering the French Open , many were expecting another Nadal-Federer final.

The victory at Roland Garros marked the second time that Nadal had won the French Open without dropping a set. At the Wimbledon Championships , he won his first two matches in straight sets.

In the third round he needed five sets to defeat Philipp Petzschner. In his first tournament since Wimbledon, Nadal advanced to the semifinals of the Rogers Cup , where he was defeated by Andy Murray.

The next week, Nadal was the top seed at the Cincinnati Masters , losing in the quarterfinals to Marcos Baghdatis. At the US Open , Nadal reached his first final without dropping a set.

Nadal next played in the Shanghai Rolex Masters , where he lost to No. On 5 November, Nadal announced that he was pulling out of the Paris Masters owing to tendinitis in his left shoulder.

In the semifinal, he defeated Murray in three sets, before losing to Roger Federer in the final. In the final, he won over Roger Federer.

Nadal defeated Ruben Bemelmans and Olivier Rochus. Nadal began his clay-court season by winning the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters with the loss of just one set.

In the final, he avenged his defeat by David Ferrer in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open. At Wimbledon, Nadal reached the final after three four-set matches.

This set up a final against No. After dropping the third set, Djokovic defeated Nadal in the fourth. After resting for a month from a foot injury sustained during Wimbledon, he contested the Rogers Cup , where he was beaten by Croatian Ivan Dodig in the quarterfinals.

He next played in the Cincinnati Masters , where he lost to Mardy Fish , again in the quarterfinals. At the US Open , Nadal made headlines when after defeating David Nalbandian on in the fourth round, he collapsed in his post-match press conference because to severe cramps.

Nadal, who was the champion, was defeated by Andy Murray. At the Shanghai Masters , he was upset in the third round by No. In the Australian Open Nadal won his first four matches without dropping a set.

In the final, on 29 January, he was beaten by Novak Djokovic in a five-set match that lasted 5 hours and 53 minutes, the longest Grand Slam final of all time.

Nadal made it to the semifinals in Indian Wells , where he was beaten in straight sets by eventual champion Roger Federer.

He also made the semifinals in Miami , but withdrew because of knee problems. In the final he topped No.

This ended a streak of seven straight final losses to Djokovic. A day after the Monte Carlo final, Nadal traveled to Barcelona where he received a bye in the first round.

His tremendous record on clay continued as he beat compatriot David Ferrer in a three-set final to clinch his seventh title in eight years at the Barcelona Open.

He heavily criticized the new blue-colored clay and threatened not to attend in the future if the surface was not changed back to red clay.

Several other players such as Novak Djokovic voiced similar criticism. In the last tournament before the French Open, Nadal defeated Djokovic in a tight straight set final.

This was his second victory over Novak Djokovic in and his third title of the season, as well as his 6th Rome title overall. At the French Open , Nadal dropped only 30 games against his first five opponents.

In the semifinals he dismantled Ferrer to set up another final against Novak Djokovic. This marked the first time two opposing players faced each other in four consecutive Grand Slam finals.

Nadal won the first two sets before Djokovic claimed the third. Play was suspended in the fourth set due to rain.

When the match resumed the following day, Nadal won when Djokovic double faulted on match point, sealing a record 7th Roland Garros title for Nadal.

As a warm-up ahead of Wimbledon Nadal played in Halle , losing to Philipp Kohlschreiber in the quarterfinals. This was the first time since the Wimbledon championships that Nadal had failed to progress past the 2nd round of a Grand Slam tournament.

In July , Nadal withdrew from the Olympics owing to tendinitis in his knee, which subsequently led to him pulling out of both the Rogers Cup and the Cincinnati Masters.

He later withdrew from the rest of the season, as he felt he still was not healthy enough to compete. Two weeks prior to the Australian Open , Nadal officially withdrew from the tournament citing a stomach virus.

Nadal then returned to the American hard courts, playing the Indian Wells Masters as the fifth seed. He lost only one set, and defeated No.

After withdrawing from Miami, Nadal attempted to defend his title at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters , but was beaten by Djokovic in straight sets.

He then won his eight title at the Barcelona Open. Nadal won the French Open after beating Novak Djokovic in the semifinal and David Ferrer in the final, breaking the record for the most match wins in the tournament in the process with his 59th match victory.

Nadal then lost his first-round match at the Wimbledon Championships in straight sets to unseeded Belgian Steve Darcis ranked No. In October, he reached the final of the China Open , guaranteeing he would be back to the No.

Nadal met Djokovic in the final, losing in straight sets. In the final, he faced Stanislas Wawrinka , against whom he entered the match with a 12—0 record.

However, Nadal suffered a back injury during the warm-up, which progressively worsened as the match wore on. The first tournament he played after that was the inaugural Rio Open which he won after defeating Alexandr Dolgopolov in the final.

However, at the Indian Wells Masters , Dolgopolov would avenge his loss, defeating Nadal in three sets in the third round. He reached the final of the Miami Masters , falling to Novak Djokovic in straight sets.

Nadal began his clay court season with a quarterfinal loss to David Ferrer in the Monte-Carlo Masters. He was stunned by Nicolas Almagro in the quarterfinals of the Barcelona Open.

Nadal then won his 27th masters title at the Madrid Open after Kei Nishikori retired in the third set of the final. Nadal entered the Wimbledon Championships in a bid to win the tournament for the third time.

In the fourth round he was upset by Australian teenager Nick Kyrgios in four sets. Nadal withdrew from the American swing owing to a wrist injury.

He lost his opening match to Feliciano Lopez in straight sets. After the loss, he announced that he would skip the rest of the season to undergo surgery for his appendix.

Nadal began the year as the defending Champion at the Qatar Open , but suffered a shocking three set defeat to Michael Berrer in the first round.

In the third round of the US Open , Nadal once again lost to Fognini, despite having won the first two sets. Nadal started the year winning Mubadala Title defeating Milos Raonic in straight sets.

After that, he entered the Doha, Qatar , where he reached the finals, losing to Djokovic in straight sets. This was their 47th match, after which Djokovic led their head-to-head rivalry with 24 matches won.

At the Australian Open , Nadal was defeated in five sets by compatriot Fernando Verdasco in the first round. The defeat marked his first opening round exit at the Australian Open.

In April he won his 28th Masters in Monte Carlo. The following week, Nadal played in Rome Masters where he reached the quarterfinal. Nadal was again defeated by Djokovic in straight sets, although he had a break advantage in both sets and served to win the second.

At the US Open Nadal was seeded 4 and advanced to the fourth round but was defeated by 24th seed Lucas Pouille in 5 sets.

The defeat meant that was the first year since in which Nadal had failed to reach a Grand Slam quarter-final.

He played the Shanghai Masters and was upset in the second round by Viktor Troicki. He subsequently ended his season to let his wrist recover.

Nadal opened his season by playing at the Brisbane International for the first time, where he reached the quarterfinals before losing to Milos Raonic in three sets.

Nadal defeated Raonic and Grigor Dimitrov in the quarterfinal and semifinal, respectively the latter lasting for five sets over five hours , to set up a final against Roger Federer , his first Grand Slam final since he won the French Open.

Nadal went on to lose to Federer in five sets; this was the first time that Nadal had lost to Federer in a Grand Slam since the final of the Wimbledon Championships.

Nadal made it to the final of Acapulco without dropping a set, but was defeated by big-serving Sam Querrey. In a rematch of the Australian Open final Nadal took on Roger Federer in the fourth round at Indian Wells but again lost to his old rival, this time in straight sets; it was their earliest meeting in a tournament in over a decade.

In the Miami Masters , Nadal reached the final to again play Federer, and was once again defeated in straight sets. Nadal went on to beat Stan Wawrinka in straight sets and win a record tenth French Open title.

This marked his first Grand Slam title since , ending his three-year drought in Grand Slams. Nadal also climbed to second on the all-time Grand Slam titles list , with 15 grand slam championships, putting him one ahead of Pete Sampras.

He won his first match against Coric in straight sets but fell in the Round of 16 to Canadian teenager Denis Shapovalov.

This marked the first time that Nadal had captured two Grand Slam tournaments in a year since , and the second time since Nadal extended his winning streak by winning the China Open , winning the final against Nick Kyrgios in straight sets.

After defeating Hyeon Chung in the second round of the Paris Masters Nadal secured the year end number one. By securing year end number one, Nadal broke a number of historical records: Nadal began his season at the Kooyong Classic , where he lost to Richard Gasquet in the first round.

On 16 February, Nadal dropped to the No. Bowing out in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, Nadal had only defended of the points he had won by reaching the final in At the same time, Federer successfully defended his title and left Australia only points behind Nadal.

Federer then won his third Rotterdam Open and collected enough points to overtake the No. Despite his absence in Miami, he regained the No.

After recovering from his hip injury, Nadal helped secure the Spanish Davis Cup team a victory over Germany in the quarterfinal of the World Group.

He beat Philipp Kohlschreiber and Alexander Zverev in straight sets. At the Monte Carlo Masters , Nadal successfully defended his title and won a record-breaking 31st Masters title, thus becoming the player with the most Masters titles in tennis history.

It also marked his 11th title in Monte Carlo, as well as the 76th title in his career. Because he defended the points won the previous year, he kept his no.

Nadal went on to win his 11th title in Barcelona , defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets, becoming the first player in the open era to win matches on both clay and hard.

It also marked his 14th consecutive season with at least one ATP title. He reached the quarterfinals, defeating Gael Monfils and Diego Schwartzman in straight sets, to extend his record to 50 consecutive sets won on clay, starting from the French Open.

In a surprise, Nadal lost in straight sets to Dominic Thiem in the quarterfinals, ending his match and record set winning streaks on clay.

He also relinquished his world no. At the Rome Masters , Nadal captured his 8th title in the Italian capital as well as his 78th career title, defeating Alexander Zverev in three sets, thus overtaking John McEnroe in the fourth place on the list of most titles won in the Open Era.

With his victory in Rome, Nadal also regained the no. Also In the semifinals, he faced his arch-rival Novak Djokovic for the record 51st time, beating him in two sets after a tight first set tiebreak.

En route to the title, Nadal dropped only one set, beating Dominic Thiem in the final in three sets. He wins two quick points and it is Albeit that Nadal wins the next two points, Fed not giving it up without a fight in this game.

At , Federer attacks the second serve and slays it with a crosscourt stroke of real elan. He complained the other day that he played Rafa too often on clay in the early days.

Mind you, if he had taken his mach points in Rome that early time, in , it might not have stacked up on him so quickly". S uddenly, Roger has that sickening feeling of shifting the gear stick and finding nothing there.

Roger has answered the call and he shows great creativity, and Djokovic-like elasticity at the net to make it A for the second time in the match. Can he break back?

Both players hitting their groundstrokes deep, deep, deep. Very few easy points to be had. Roger has put one just long.

And Nadal then puts the hammer down with a thumping first serve and he has held his serve. Nadal moving him around the court, always feels like he is on top here, the sheer force of Nadal pressurising Roger into an error.

At , Roger gets the benefit of a net cord. His wife sighs in relief! She looks really stressed. Rafa wins the next point and has a break point.

But at , Rafa thinks he has put Roger away, but Fed produces a wonderful running attempted passing shot Nadal snuffs out its hopes at the net.

Nadal is well on top in this point, he has raised his game in this set, he is putting it up to Roger with a series of crunching forehands and Federer is broken by them.

A long rally at , Rafa has come out swinging here. More of the route-one FH to BH stuff too. Finally it came to me while trying to put one of my 18mth old twins back to sleep at , Gregory Fed Peck up against Robert Rafa Mitchum in Cape Fear.

Fed in 4 or Rafa in 5! Too close to call. Class coverage as always. I like that a lot. Somebody mentioned Ali-Frazier in the build-up. I was thinking maybe more Ali-Foreman, the snakey movement against those thumping blows.

But Peck and Mitchum is better still. Federer has beaten Nadal just twice in 11 matches at Slams. Both times he won the first set. That lovely backhand working its magic now.

Rafa has no answer to this game. Two aces in it. Here is Simon Briggs: Against Grigor, Rafa started out hitting over 80pc forehands behind his serve.

By end of match it was down to around 60pc, which was one reason the match got close". Roger assays a backhand down the line off his serve, just out but the signs are good.

But Rafa wraps it up and obliges Federer to serve for the first set. Not a lot, to be honest. Still, in the Telegraph office there is a constant high-pitched whine - not one of my colleagues, I mean - a faulty alarm or something.

Not ideal for first thing on a Sunday. O oh, Roger fans. Your man is looking very good. C rowd getting into this now.

I make it eight winners for Roger so far, and only one for Rafa which came by virtue of a cheeky netcord. Maybe a bit flat after the Grigor epic?

Rafa also returning serve from incredibly far back, which feels a bit negative. Great early signs for Roger fans. S hot of the match so far from Roger, a leaping backhand smash, to make it And this is the point of the match so far!

Rafa with his heavy metal forehand, forcing Roger back and wide, but the Swiss hangs in there with his backhand. And he turns the pressure back onto Rafa, who dishes one up.

Roger on top in this point too, and Nadal had hit it wide. Roger Federer with a break of serve. R oger answers with an acute, dominating service game of his own.

Neither of these two greats letting the rival get on top for long yet. S heer blunt force trauma from Rafa here as he produces a trio of points peppered with heavy, thumping forehands.

Backhand working well, and he has the confidence to come into the net. Takes this game to 15, he has moved Rafa around the court a lot in these points.

Not sure you can rely on tiring Nadal out as a strategy, but could that gruelling semi come into play if the match goes deep? T alking of that Fed forehand, a lovely whipped winner down the line makes it Rafa dealing with a few issues in this game, not the least of which is a double fault that makes it On second serve, Roger is on top in this rally but a net cord does Rafa a big favour.

E arly signs are that Roger has got his work cut out. Rafa is working him on the first two points here, testing out that backhand, and Roger has put a crosscourt one into the net.

At , second serve, the first hint of a moment. Rafa very over aggressive as he attacks down the line, well wide. Federer starting to impose a little authority with a commanding backhand to set up an emphatic point.

But Nadal hanging in this game. Big wide serve, Rafa gets it back, a minor victory. His forehand looking well. R afa needs second serves for the first two points.

Both won by Rafa after vaguely unforced errors from Roger. He puts a forehand into the net, then hits one long. A late call on that. And he has soon wrapped the game up to love.

F eel of the prizefight about this! Roger cool, still, Sphynx-like. Rafa bouncing on his toes, moving and shaping, especially suggestive of a boxer.

Two great champions, two great players, two very good blokes as well IMHO. My personal preference is for Roger but, as Boris Becker says, either would be an extremely popular winner.

S un just going down behind the steel ramparts - stadium bathed in unearthly glow. Which seems kind of appropriate.

G ood stuff on the Federer movement, and the tactic Rafa uses to hit onto the shoelaces of his opponent. The third round win against Berdych has given me a lot of answers.

H ow have their games changed over the last ten years? For me, the bigger racket head means I can swing a bit more freely on the backhand.

And I feel I have nothing to lose, which is a new feeling in a Grand Slam. R eckons that having Carlos Moya back on the team, "his childhood mentor", has been a major boost for Rafa.

And "that forehand is the best in the game. C atherine Whitaker says, "I have never seen a man as relaxed as Roger when I saw him just now.

B oris Becker and John McEnroe have. Not bad guests huh? Ahead of the final, which will be played on Sunday morning in the UK, McEnroe joined Catherine Whitaker Eurosport for an interview that we can hear in its entirety here on the Tennis Podcast.

So who will win? W here the Australian Open final will be won and lost. Federer has more slams than any male player in the history of the sport with 17, while Nadal is in joint second place with Roger Federer vs Rafael Nadal: H ere is our rundown of their greatest battles.

A bright and early start in the UK, but what a treat we have in store. Roger Federer against Rafael Nadal, two all-time greats, who have had a wonderful rivalry.

It looked like the days of them going head-to-head in a major final had been and gone, but here we are. We urge you to turn off your ad blocker for The Telegraph website so that you can continue to access our quality content in the future.

Visit our adblocking instructions page. Home News Sport Business. I work hard but then so do lots of other people, there are some legends in this game.